"The master is going, miss, for sure, and wants to see you," the man replied.
Mollie seized a long wrap and, while she was fastening it about her, explained to Eliza that she should be away all night. The next minute she was inside the carriage and being whirled at a rapid rate toward the Lamonti mansion.
She was comparatively calm when she arrived and followed the weeping Nannette to her master's room without a word, although she held the girl's hand in a clasp of sympathy on the way hither.
She was terribly shocked at the change in her kind friend which the last few hours had made, but she gave no outward sign of this except that she was very pale.
She found the physician, a trained nurse, and Monsieur Lamonti's lawyer present; but paying no heed to them she walked quietly to the bedside, where she sat down and took the hand which the man weakly extended to her. He was white as wax, but very calm, and smiled as his fingers closed over hers. He glanced up at his lawyer.
"Tell them to go out," he said, indicating the nurse, Nannette, and the physician, and as they passed from the room Mollie bent over her friend.
"You sent for me," she said gently, "what can I do for you?"
"Just this, mademoiselle," he replied gravely, but speaking with difficulty, "you have promised to care for my Lucille, to rear and educate her carefully, to be, in fact, a mother to her, as well as her legal guardian until she is of age or marries?"
"Yes," briefly but solemnly assented Mollie.
He thanked her with a little pressure of her hand.